Say it's not so Joss!

As if things were not bad enough, we have a recession/depression, we have absolute morons running the country, we've got a brand new $50 billion deficit and North Korea is theatening to light up the pacific rim, but no it gets worse.

Fran Rubel Kuzui the director of the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie (Donald Sutherland/Kristy Swanson) and the holder of the movie rights wants to do a new Buffy movie. Is there no sanity in the universe?

Buffy the Vamipre Slayer was one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I was quite amazed when someone had the guts to give the writer, Joss Whedon a second chance. Despite it's horrific origins Whedon brought Buffy to TV, salvaged his name, his dignity and the entire Buffyverse managing a seven year run and the successful spin off series Angel.

Now Kuzui, who runied the original film wants another shot. This cannot be allowed, I need my Buffy, Willow, Anya and Spike fix not more crap from Kuzui. ARGGGGGG

In most cases I'm either oblivious about TV and pop culture or just don't give a damn but don't mess with my Star Trek, Babylon 5 or Buffy.Recommend this Post

Razing a city to save it

Flint Michigan is a perfect example of a dilapidated rust belt city whose population has dropped from about 200,000 to 110,000 according to recent estimates. This decrease has brought Flint to the point that some neighbourhoods are too sparsely populated to be supported by the tax base. Empty, burnt out or vandalized homes are everywhere leaving garbage trucks, postmen snow ploughs and road crews to service streets that only have a few inhabitants. Neighbourhoods in Flint are dysfunctional and retail businesses struggle because of the low density levels created by 110,000 people spread over 34 square miles in 75 distinct neighbourhoods

A partial solution being considered for Flint’s problem is to tear down part of the city. The city would demolish the worst neighborhoods offering displaced people an equivalent or better homes in more stable parts of the city in an attempt to revitalize communities, make businesses in those areas sustainable and allow the city to curtail costly services in the almost dead zones. The ability to consolidate social services and policing would also go a long way to making Flint a liveable and safe city again. I think this is quite a rational idea and a model that should be used in other dying rust belt cities but I don’t think it goes far enough.

Razing these communities should be part of a greater plan for the eventual rebirth and growth of these cities in a decade or two as Midwestern droughts, increasing population, peak oil and rising sea levels push people back into the great lake regions. A city like Flint should try to divide itself into a series of population hubs surrounded by new mixed use urban agriculture zones. These urban farms would create local food, jobs, pride and independence. Some of the dead zones could be made into parks and recreation areas or even just left to naturalize while others could be used as huge community sized geothermal heat sources for the waves of high density high efficiency homes needed to prepare for peak oil and climate based migration. As new open spaces are created, zoning changes and city acquisitions can assure that the land for an efficient transit system is set aside for future need.

If governments want to pour money into stimulus projects let them do so by rebuilding a city as test bed for the myriad of design and attitude changes needed to make post carbon cities work. It makes more sense than what they are doing now.Recommend this Post

National Day of Prayer

Yesterday was the National day of Prayer in the U.S. but fortunately Obama unlike his predecessor did not make a big fuss about the event.

This of course outrages wingnuts who refuse to accept that religion is a personal choice not a national duty, but at least one SANE preacher, the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance is quoted saying “President Obama is not the pastor in chief of the nation” Amen Brother!

Can you imagine God picking up his voice mail last night? All that righteous indignation, whining and incoherent thought must have been quite a challenge to tolerate all in one sitting. So because I'm not an American and to show a little consideration I saved mine for today. I guess being all powerful means having a strong stomach too. Geez tough job!

Dear higher entity/entities of indeterminate or neutral genders please heed my prayer. If you really exist and are not too busy listening to the grovelling of your faithful, please smite someone on my list. You know, The LIST!

I'm not quite sure where I’ve left the list but surely with your reported omniscience you can find it. Maybe you would be so kind as to leave it someplace more obvious when you’re finished with it? Excuse the penmanship and just highlight anyone you can’t make out so I can fix it for next time.

While not imperative maybe you could make the smiting a little bit flashy like a lightening strike, being torn apart by wild dogs or an exploding head like in Scanners! Car crashes are so blasé


P.S. plz ignore any requests to smite me, they are obviously just clerical errors.

Amen.

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The "NAFTA FLU" I like it!

It's not as if we were not warned about this in recent years with millions of birds killed to stop the spread of Avian Flu, or the mistakes that allowed Hoof and Mouth disease to ravage the U.K. or the Mad Cow problem. Don't forget the local Listeria and e.coli outbreaks or the poisoned food and milk in China. We don't treat our animals or our other food sources with the care and respect they deserve.

As should have been expected, NAFTA has allowed greedy and irresponsible factor farm practices to move into Mexico where weaker controls and lower priced bribes are the norm. If you've ever smelled a factory farms cesspool in Canada you can only imagine what it would be in like in a country that has poor regulation and is bending over backwards for economic investment and jobs, the potential for disease is astronomical.

Well, today's Star article gives you a small glimpse of the factory farm conditions and quotes experts saying Nafta is to blame for the current flu whose name is no longer swine. I like the NAFTA Flu,it's a good name and much easier to say than the Greedy Corporatist Bastards Flu.


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